Journalists must forcefully decry the arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort

Press freedom is at stake, and news organizations need to say so

There can be no doubt about this one. The federal arrests of independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering a Minneapolis protest represent a prima facie violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press.

Without that guarantee, journalists are in danger anytime they produce anything the government doesn’t like.

Without that guarantee, we are one giant step closer to dictatorship.

Press freedom groups and some news outlets have responded by expressing outrage. This is essential. Every major news organization in the United States should be calling this out for what it is, and demanding that the charges be dropped.

And they should use every possible platform to do so – including their news stories.

Indeed, what’s even more important than a statement from the company Twitter account is that the news coverage sound the alarm. The coverage should state clearly from the get-go that this represents the most dramatic violation of freedom of the press of the Trump era. And it should remind the public why freedom of the press matters.

Instead, at least in their initial articles, the Washington Post and the New York Times barely addressed the constitutional issue -- only toward the bottom of their stories, and attributed to others. Neither cited “freedom of the press” at all.

The initial Associated Press story was a somewhat better model, devoting much of its length to critics describing the arrests as a violation of the constitution. For instance, it quoted civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton’s statement that “We cannot let Donald Trump put tape over our mouths to muffle our right to free speech, when his administration is conducting some of the most heinous actions in American history.”

It was good to see CNN – which formerly employed Lemon – early out of the gate with a statement from its corporate office:

The FBI’s arrest of our former CNN colleague Don Lemon raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment.

The Department of Justice already failed twice to get an arrest warrant for Don and several other journalists in Minnesota, where a chief judge of the Minnesota Federal District Court found there was “no evidence” that there was any criminal behavior involved in their work. The First Amendment in the United States protects journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfold, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DOJ’s attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable. We will be following this case closely.

But the CNN news article didn’t mention the existence of constitutional issues until the eight paragraph, and even then in a quote from Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell.

Civil rights activist Sherrilyn Ifill often serves as my moral compass. And this is what she posted on Bluesky Friday morning:

The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are a test for every MSM member with a platform. If you are not voicing your outrage at this blatant violation of the First Amendment, you are utterly discredited as a journalist.

Fort, an independent journalist who, like Lemon, documented the demonstration at Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18, live-streamed her arrest Friday morning at the hands of FBI agents. “I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest,” she said.

The Minnesota Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, the Minnesota Reformer, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Sahan Journal, Center for Broadcast Journalism and Minnesota Newspaper Association released the following statement:

We strongly condemn the arrest of journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon, as well as any attempt to intimidate members of the press. The First Amendment recognizes the press as holding a distinct and protected role in our democracy. In America, we do not arrest journalists for doing their jobs. The Minnesota journalism community stands united in defense of press freedom and the essential role reporting plays in holding power to account.

The statement from major press organizations are powerful, and what they’re saying should be reflected in the news coverage.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation said in a statement:

The government’s arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are naked attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon because the evidence for these vindictive and unconstitutional charges was insufficient, and Lemon has every right to document news and inform the public. Instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down.

These arrests, under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting, are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists. The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them. Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon.

The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment. If the Trump administration thinks it can bully journalists into submission, it is wrong. We’ve recently seen that even in the Trump era, public pressure still can work. It’s time to do it again. News outlets across the political spectrum need to loudly defend Lemon’s and Fort’s rights. Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is.

Committee to Protect Journalists CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in her statement:

As an international organization, we know that the treatment of journalists is a leading indicator of the condition of a country’s democracy. These arrests are just the latest in a string of escalating threats to the press in the United States – and an attack on people’s right to know.

Advocacy Director Jenna Ruddock of Free Press – a nonprofit advocacy group, not the right-leaning website --- made the point that the First Amendment protects speech as well as the press:

As the Trump administration’s all-out assault on Minnesota continues, the First Amendment remains in its crosshairs. While journalists and civilians continue to heroically document conditions on the ground in the face of escalating violence from federal agents, the Trump administration is using every weapon at its disposal to shut down efforts to document, report and dissent.

The First Amendment protects acts of protest and acts of journalism equally. The criminalization of both journalists and protesters serves the same authoritarian project: shutting down dissenting voices or any content that deviates from the official narrative. These actions should outrage our leading media organizations, our elected officials and the public alike.

The good news, if there is any, is that this case is a clear loser.

As the Freedom of the Press statement indicated, a Minneapolis magistrate judge previously refused to approve warrants against five protesters at the church – including the two journalists. The Justice Department also failed in its attempt to appeal his decision to the Eighth Circuit.

Minnesota Chief District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz even specified, in a memo to the Eighth Circuit, that “Two of the five protestors were not protestors at all; instead, they were a journalist and his producer. There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.”

And according to MS NOW, career Justice Department prosecutors in both Minnesota and Los Angeles refused to be involved in charging Lemon and Fort.

The case, frankly, seems like the result of an obsession. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, vowed on Saturday that she would pursue Lemon “to the ends of the earth” – presumably to curry favor with Trump. Indeed, the White House’s official X account gloated over the arrest, posting a picture of Lemon with a chains emoji.

This is hardly the Trump administration’s first attack on the free press, as Slate’s Jill Filipovic reminds us:

The FBI recently searched the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, claiming they were looking for “illegal leaks”; Natanson had been reporting on the administration’s gutting of the federal workforce. Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk was walking home when masked federal agents grabbed her off of the street, forced her into a van, and ferried her off to a detention center thousands of miles away where they continued deportation proceedings against her—not because she had broken the law, but because the government didn’t like the content of a pro-Palestinian op-ed she wrote. Emmy Award–winning journalist Mario Guevara, who spent two decades covering immigration and the Latino community in Atlanta and had a valid work permit, was arrested by ICE, detained for more than 100 days, and eventually deported to El Salvador. The administration claimed Guevara’s filming of ICE officers—his reporting—constituted a risk to public safety.

But it is the most serious attack yet. Journalists should take this both personally and professionally. And they should show the public that a free press matters.